UC PRESIDENT TO STEP DOWN, CITING ‘TAXING HEALTH ISSUES’

Yudof led 10-campus system for 5 years through tumultuous period

SAN FRANCISCO 
University of California President Mark Yudof said Friday he plans to step down as head of one of the nation’s leading systems of higher education, citing a “spate of taxing health issues.”

Yudof, 68, said he’ll end his tenure on Aug. 31, about five years after he became the 19th president of the UC system. The former law professor plans to return to teaching law on the UC Berkeley campus.

“The prior 18 months brought a spate of taxing health issues,” Yudof said in a statement. “Though these challenges have been largely overcome, I feel it is time to make a change in my professional lifestyle.”

The UC Board of Regents will create a committee to search for Yudof’s successor, UC officials said.

“He’s irreplaceable. We are so sad,” board Chair Sherry Lansing said. “I’ve been trying to change his mind for several months … ”

Yudof has led the 10-campus system through a tumultuous period, when deep cuts in state funding led to sharp tuition hikes, staff furloughs, course cutbacks and rowdy campus protests that sometimes turned violent.

“Because of his leadership, he’s leaving the university in far better shape than when he got there,” Lansing said.

But state Sen. Leland Lee, D-San Francisco, and a persistent critic of UC’s tuition and executive pay policies, welcomed news of Yudof’s departure, saying “students and workers unfairly suffered while top executives got wealthier” under Yudof. After several years of budget cuts, the university’s finances are expected to stabilize.

In his 2013-14 budget, Gov. Jerry Brown proposed increasing state funding for UC by $250 million, a boost made possible by the November passage of his Proposition 30 tax initiative. On Friday, university officials announced the UC system received a record number of applications for undergraduate admission, showing strong demand from students inside and outside California.